Inhabitat – Green Design Will Save the World

 

 

 

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If you’re always losing your cell and want a centralized place to tuck it away, or if you hate having to put your phone on the floor while you charge it, why not make a neat little charging station for it out of an old lotion bottle? You’ve probably seen similar cradles selling on the internet for upwards of $10, but fashioning your own is a simple DIY way to reuse something you already have while saving on shipping costs and packaging. Plus you can say you did it with your own two hands!

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Starting your own wine collection, but have yet to reach full scale? Here’s a great piece from one of our favorite eco-designers that gives you a way to store some bottles before you open up a full-on cellar. A simple project designed by Deger Cengiz, the Wine Rack is made from 100% from waste material left over by the wine cork industry, with wine stoppers popped into the front to conceal the mounting screws. In addition to its eco-friendly design, the rack allows each bottle’s label to be displayed, providing the potential to “casually” strike up a conversation that showcases your knowledge of the best Burgundys and Barolos.

+ Deger Cengiz

Leicester De Montfort University industrial design graduate Tom Broadbent has created an ingenious device that can harvest energy from falling waste water found in the pipes of high-rise buildings. Broadbent’s “HighDro Power” makes this conversion possible by utilizing the same principles as a hydroelectric dam — only smaller. Fitting nicely inside any bathrooms, the HighDro Power transforms the simple act of flushing a toilet into an energy-generating action.

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One of the latest and greatest additions to the NYC community market scene has been the Hester Street Fair, opening up just this past May. If you haven’t already had a chance to check out this awesome fair filled with a bounty of incredible crafts and tasty treats, mark your calendar for this Saturday or Sunday (or both!) and join in all the fun. In addition to all of the usual offerings of wares, local foods and crafts, this weekend the fair will host some great local green initiatives including E-Waste Recycling, a fabric/clothing recycling drive, and compost collection site! So gather up all your compostable goods, old clothing, and outdated electronics and prepare for a drop off THIS WEEKEND!

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Are driverless cars the next big thing in transportation? A group of Italian engineers are getting ready to send two driverless electric vehicles on an 8,000 mile journey from Italy to China, where they will pass through everything from mountain roads to city traffic — with a little help from four laser scanners and seven video cameras.

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If you watch this video footage, from GigaOM TV’s latest episode of Green Overdrive, you might be surprised to see who’s driving the neon green electric race car soaring around the track at the Mazda Raceway. It’s Tim Collins, 70-year-old investment banker, and founder of Kleenspeed, a startup that’s using electric race cars to test technology that will eventually be used for a passenger car. The company, founded in 2007, works out of NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View Calif., and won the time trials at the raceway earlier this month, breaking last year’s record. Check out Green Overdrive, because if it’s green we’ll drive it.

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Currently 29% of New York’s waste stream is made up of materials that could be composted instead of sent to live forever in landfill purgatory. Imagine the decrease in sanitation costs, transportation costs and overall environmental costs if we were able to divert that waste back into the ground. That’s why we’re jazzed about this new project that will bring composting — by bike — to New York City! They need to raise $6,000 by September first to start their compost-by-bike project and they are giving away a slew of rad prizes for donations, so read on to learn how you can contribute!.

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We recently fell in love with designer Thomas Tzortzi’s Eunoia project – a zero emission update on the classic zeppelin. Outfitted with an array of solar panels and lifted from the earth using helium, the Eunoia can launch into the skies without need for a runway. The initial prototype is only designed for eight individuals, but as technology keeps evolving Tzortzi believes it will be able to hold up to 60 people at a time.

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In the world of green architecture and affordable housing, shipping container homes are often considered to be practical, cost-effective and even environmentally-friendly. In Dubai, however, the prospect seems a bit dubious. Gulf News reported today on a contracting firm in Dubai that has built housing for workers out of shipping containers, which can become unbearably hot in desert environments if they aren’t properly insulated. On the other hand, the containers probably didn’t cost that much, can be easily relocated to the next job, they can withstand sand storms, and the contracting firm says that the containers have sufficient insulation against the scorching desert sun.

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Today we’re thrilled to kick off a brand new series that explores a greener future for packaging design, brought to you by Eco Chick founder and green journalist Starre Vartan!

Each year households in the U.S. send over 270 million tons of trash to the landfill, and much of this waste comes from packaging. This is a glaring problem, which is why each week we’ll be exploring how to make packaging greener and cleaner, by examining natural models for packaging, new innovations in packaging design, and ways in which we can improve how packaging is created and used. Read on for our first installation, and stay tuned for this new series every Thursday on Inhabitat!
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The Coconut – Nature’s Best Packaging Design

The humble and tropically ubiquitous coconut, besides producing one of the tastiest cocktail starters out there (mmmm…..piña coladas!), is one the best package design solutions for a perishable food item ever designed by nature. Not only do coconuts survive falling from heights of 50 feet to the ground (landing on anything from cushy golf courses to lava rock), but they often travel thousands of miles via ocean waves, still perfectly protected. Viable Caribbean coconuts, which are the seeds of the Coconut palm, have been found as far north as Norway, which is why the tree has propagated so successfully from 26 latitude North to 26 degrees latitude South.

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Today we’re thrilled to announce a brand new editorial series on Inhabitat that explores the past, present, and future of packaging design, hosted by Eco Chick founder and green journalist Starre Vartan! Each year households in the U.S. send over 270 million tons of trash to the landfill, and much of this waste consists of materials used to wrap, ship, and package products. Fortunately, there’s a plethora of ways to make packaging more environmentally sustainable — stay tuned as our Packaging the Future series explores natural solutions to the packaging problem, innovative new approaches to creating eco-efficient packaging, and the future of sustainable packaging design.

Starre Vartan is founder and editor-in-chief of Eco-Chick and author of The Eco-Chick Guide to Life (St. Martin’s Press). A green living expert, she is managing editor of Greenopia and a contributor to The Huffington Post.

 

 

Haiti is still in a world of hurt, especially with regards to a lack of safe and earthquake resistant housing. Michael Reynolds, an architect from Taos, New Mexico specializing in building earthships, recently traveled to Haiti with a crew in hopes of doing a little reconnaissance. In the end they did more than just check out the lay of the land - they built a home in four days out of discarded materials that just happened to be laying around. Reynolds has plans to build whole villages of earthship homes that are completely water and energy self-sufficient for the area.

 

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One of the looming issues with the impending release of mass-marketed electric vehicles is EV charging stations – it’s always been a question of who will put in the infrastructure and when. Well, it looks like the US government is stepping up to the plate as the Senate Energy Committee just approved a $3.6 billion dollar bill that would go towards creating a nation-wide electric vehicle charging system. The bill still has to pass on the Senate floor and get approved by Congress, but this is the first positive step in a much needed clean transportation direction.

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We’ve heard so much about the containment cap that’s been holding back oil from gushing into the Gulf of Mexico in the past few weeks that pretty much everyone knows what it is. But the question remains – who designed it??? We were under the impression that some engineer on BP’s payroll was responsible but some new information brings to light a “mystery plumber” who may be able to take credit, if he would only come forward.

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